Tanner Foust Just Made His Return to Nitrocross, Has Thousand-HP EV Racer to Play With

Tanner's first return race back on the Nitrocross didn't go quite the way he envisioned, failing to podium in front of a capacity crowd in Richmond, Virginia. But the one-race-per-month Nitrocross season doesn't end until early March with one final spectacular race across a Nitrodome track of race-founder Travis Pastrana. For a drift-happy, no-fear thrill jockey like Tanner, the added huge jumps and close, packed racing that's now the flagship feature of Nitrocross racing is just the kind of environment he feels most at home in.

"They're kind of like supercross tracks for cars, lots of big jumps," Tanner said of the excitement behind every inch of the Pastrana-designed Nitrocross tracks, be it UTVs, Baja Bugs, or something else entirely gliding around the corners. "If you can imagine what Travis would think of as the coolest racing track out there. That's what he creates on each of those weekends." The last time Tanner competed in Nitrocross was more of a part-time gig.

Prior experience in last year's 2023 season appeared to ignite something within the long-time drift and rallying star turned media man and content creator. Now, he appears poised to make a genuine run at winning his class outright. "The first two seasons I sat out to explore some other stuff, to race with McLaren in Extreme E overseas and to do some off-road stuff with Volkswagen." said Tanner of his time between the inaugural 2021 season to his eventual part-time debut in Nitrocross last year.

"I’ve partnered with OPTIMA Batteries and Clarios - which is OPTIMA's parent company – to race this season. It’s [Clarios] not a brand that a lot of people are familiar with, but Clarios is the largest low-voltage battery manufacturer in the world. They wanted to get in some alternative fuels racing, and Nitrocross is the most exciting, so here we are." But Tanner doesn't show up to just any race unless there's something truly spectacular for him to drive. That's where the remarkable, ground-breaking, and utterly savage FC-1X all-electric Group-E monster makes a rag-tag group of thrill-seekers into space-age racers.

With over 1,000 horsepower at its disposal, the FC-1X is nothing short of a game-changer for the sport of rallycross, a signifier that the sport won't go extinct as soon as the last ICE racers cross the finish line. For Tanner, the FC-1X is one of the main attractions for Nitrocross. As he explained, you don't even notice the lack of an exhaust in the cockpit during the race. " You don't notice it in the car because it's quite loud. The cars [the FC-1X] have a drivetrain that is very similar to a combustion race car. So you get a lot of the gear whine, they have a three-speed transmission, which is unique to EV racing," Tanner said of the unique experience of seat time in an FC-1X.

"But certainly, they're a lot quieter outside. So that was always the question, how do you make a motorsport where people are craving the sounds of a combustion engine?" said Tanner. "If Nitrocross can't make it happen, then I don't know if it ever will. Because it's the most exciting motorsport I've ever seen. It just doesn't have an exhaust note to the engine." This isn't the case in the UTV and Baja Bug categories. But, admittedly, there's at least a small percentage of racing fans for which a lack of ICE noise is an inconsolable grievance.

However, for those who don't fly into a tantrum whenever the letters E and V are combined, the FC-1X can do things no Evo, Quattro, WRX, or Lancia could do. "There are a lot of things we can do with these cars because they're EVs that we couldn't do with combustion cars. So, it makes the racing a bit better in that way," Tanner remarked about the unique quirks of an EV rally car like this one. "One, they have a super low center of gravity, so the suspensions are actually quite soft and compliant because of that weight down low."

As meager a change as it sounds, this typical EV weight distribution makes a world of difference out on the track. "So that low center of gravity means you don't have a lot of body roll. Because you don't have a lot of body roll, you don't have to have stiff springs combating body roll, so you can have soft springs. Then the car can be super compliant and gets more grip on the gravel and better landings on the jumps, so that makes it cool," Tanner said of the FC-1X.

"Also, the whole reliability of EVs is pretty amazing. So, you have ten cars starting the day, you have ten finishing, that's just how it is. In the races, there are problems. Punctures and things like that, but throughout the day, the cars just keep running. You don't have somebody having to rebuild an engine or whatever." If you don't take our word for how great EVs can be, try a ringing endorsement from one of the greatest rallycross drivers in American history on for size. By taking cues and attributes of legendary rally racers from the past and adding a world-class battery-EV drivetrain, we really have reached a quantum leap for the world of rallying.

"I will probably have some sort of fire-breathing combustion engine car in my garage my whole life; that's just the generation I grew up in. But when you watch EV racing, it's not saying that you don't like combustion cars," Tanner said of his dedication to his mutual love of ICE and EV automobiles," said Tanner. "We're going to a more futureproof motorsport. This is something that is more relevant to what manufacturers are trying to sell on the road. So what I think is missed is how important racing is for our day-to-day transport."

As Tanner was quick to point out, all the luxuries and advancements made to modern automobiles had their start in some form of motorsport. From the disc brakes, fancy suspension, and radial tires to the safety harnesses and communications equipment. From this perspective, the FC-1X is effectively giving EV OEMs across the globe a blank check to innovate, using itself as the inspiration. "So I'm a big proponent to keep manufacturers competing in racing as a marketing avenue, make the racing relevant to what they sell on the road so that we can keep innovating and making things better," Tanner said of his passion for trickle-down technology from racing into the road car space.

"That's the only way cars are going to get safer, faster, reliable, all the things we've been doing for the last 100 years. The way to keep the ball rolling is by continuing to race." As Tanner noted, the only other force that tends to drive innovation is the wills and desires of the market. As anyone who knows what befell the American auto industry in the 70s and 80s, very bad things can happen when market analysts and accountants take control of an OEM's R&D department. With this in mind, the FC-1X is perhaps Nitrocross' largest contribution not just to the paradigm of racing but to the auto industry in its entirety.

"For example, the FC-1X is an 800-volt system car. Which EVs on the road are 400-volt system cars. When the FC-1X came out, there were no 800-volt system cars on the road. There are a few now, there's the Porsche Taycan, there's the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. But soon, the race cars will be 1,200 volts, and then soon, the street cars will be 1,200 volts. What the higher voltage means is that they create less heat, they're more efficient, the other components are less stressed in the electrical system," said Tanner of the remarkable innovator the FC-1X has become.

"We're all used to talking about boost pressure and what makes a combustion engine tunable and have aftermarket potential. In electric, we don't really speak that language. But having that higher voltage system is one of those things that makes the car more capable overall. However, there are so many other innovations in the FC-1X that are coming into the market." But enough of the marketing speak. Can an all-electric racing class really bring the same excitement as a pack of screaming UTVs? Tanner seems to think so.

"The idea is where you're lacking in the exhaust sound, you're doubling or tripling on the excitement level of the size of the jumps, and the speed. I mean, they go zero to 60 [MPH] in like 1.5 seconds, and the jumps are 200-foot jumps at some of the tracks; I mean, it's insane," Tanner remarked about just how different Nitrocross can be from traditional forms of rallying and rallycross. In some respects, it's closer to a video game in its feel than traditional racing. But with just six laps per race, Tanner simply calls it a "highlight reel of motorsport packed into four minutes."

For a continent eternally itching for a distinctly North American flavor of rallycross, Tanner hopes Nitrocross is the secret sauce that keeps OEM manufacturers interested in the discipline. As he himself noted, OEMs can't justify spending money on rally racing if they're running the same two-liter engines in service for the last 35 years and change. Without some form of alternative-fueled rally discipline, the sport "just becomes a hobby for people, no longer a professional sport."

So please, go out of your way to watch Nitrocross, check out highlights, and heck, even attend a race if it's within reason. For all we know, the future of the passion we love is on the line if you don't. At the very least, go watch Jay Leno practically melt his face off with how nuts the FC-1X is to drive.